“You dream big so that others can people can benefit from your dreams,” Brownback said. “Everybody in this room has a dream, and it is special just for them. If you don’t follow it, then somebody else loses out.”

Brownback then gave an example of a student becoming a teacher and then inspiring others. If that student had never become a teacher, then that person never would have the chance to inspire others.

“A good dream is about inspiring somebody else,” Brownback said.

He spoke to about 275 of the invited 535 high school seniors and their families at Washburn University’s Lee Arena. All students at Sunday’s event are in the top one percent of their high school graduating classes. The students receive a picture with the governor and a certificate.

Included in that top one percent is Washburn Rural High School senior Kelli Mans, who is planning on attending Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., in the fall.

Mans said she learned of the honor in February.

“I was excited — I’ve always been toward the top of my class,” Mans said. “I wasn’t surprised about it, but I was excited.”

Next year Mans plans on studying biology and then going to medical school so she can study genetics, something that inspired her when she took Honors Biology 2 at Washburn Rural.

“We had one semester where we studying genetics,” Mans said. “And I fell in love with it.”

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